Early Fall 2019 President's Message
Greetings Model Railroaders,
The summer has passed and I hope you all found some time to work on your layout or your favorite modeling project, in between all of your other warm weather activities. Unfortunately, I did not get as much done on my layout as I had planned, but there was ample model railroading activities nonetheless. As I mentioned at the Summer Event, the NMRA 2019 Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah was a tremendously enjoyable experience that I will not ever forget. The annual NMRA Convention is an event that is very much worth the time and expense to attend. In the future, I hope that those of you that have never attended one of these conventions, will be able to do so. You will certainly enjoy it! So I want to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on Division activities and to remind you of some of the near-time upcoming events that will soon be upon us.
The Concord Model Railroad Club Train Show
On Sunday, August 18, 2019, the Division supported the Concord Model Railroad Club train show, which took place at the Everett Arena in Concord, New Hampshire. I was pleased to see many of you from the local area come out and support the show. There were lots of layouts on display and of course, the usual gathering of vendors. I thought the show was well attended. Dave Kotsonis and I had the opportunity to speak with many people regarding the benefits of becoming NMRA members. This train show is one of the largest in our area and is well worth supporting each year.
2019 Northeastern Region Convention
This year, the 2019 Northeastern Region Convention, "Empire Junction 2019", will be held in Liverpool, New York (Syracuse) at the Holiday Inn Syracuse-Liverpool from September 19-22, 2019. The show is almost upon us and if you plan to attend, you should have already signed up on line at . However, you can still register at the convention itself in Syracuse. At last count, we had 15 Seacoast Division members signed up to attend the convention. There are a lot of great activities planned and also some terrific clinic presentations. Please take some time to examine all the information provided on the web site. If you think that you may want to attend, then by all means, please do so!
Maine Model Railroad Tour 2019
The fifth annual Maine Model Railroad Tour begins in less than 2 weeks! This year, the tour will be held on 2 separate days, September 28 & 29, 2019. The list of this year’s hosts is attached (Sorry, I can only do a pdf file). This is a great, no charge, opportunity to see layouts in several scales and gauges, socialize with fellow model railroaders and get new modelling ideas and tips. Visit the tour website for descriptions and photos of the layouts. Please take some time and browse through the great layouts that are available to us this year. I hope that many of you will take advantage of this great opportunity, to see these really fine layouts.
I hope to see you on the tour!
Seacoast Division 2019 Fall Event
The quarterly Seacoast Division Fall Event will take place on Saturday, October 12, 2019 at the Stratham Firehouse, 2 Winnicutt Road, in Stratham, New Hampshire. The Event will begin at 10:00 AM and adjourn by 2:30 PM. We will have a great group of clinics which are listed below. Additionally, we will have our "For Sale" table, and our "Show, Tell, and Ask" table. Bruce Robinson will present the entrants and winner of this years one square foot "module" contest. There will be plenty of time for socializing and fellowship. This is a good opportunity to touch base with all your friends in the Division.
James VanBokkelen will present his signaling system on his layout that he designed himself.
Rich Breton will present and demonstrate how to make castings.
Scott Lindquist will present how he makes coal, gravel etc. loads for open topped cars.
Mike Grahame will describe how he uses water based urethane for gluing track and ballast.
Given the subject of the clinics, there will be lots of great modeling information that you can take home and use to help construct your layout or improve your modeling. We are also planning to have layout tours after the Event, but as of this writing, the layout tours have not been finalized. So we have a great Event planned for you and I hope that many of you will decide to attend.
Great Falls Model Railroad Club Fall Train Show
The 2019 GFMRC Fall Train Show will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2019 at the Mt. Ararat High School Gym, 73 Eagles Way, Topsham, Maine 04086, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The Seacoast Division will be manning a table at this show. If you would like to help support this effort, please contact our membership chairman, Lou Champagne at lucien.champagne@
Eastern Maine Model Railroad Club Train Show
The Eastern Maine Model Railroad Club will hold its annual train show at Jeff’s Catering, 15 Littlefield Way, Brewer, Maine 04412 on Saturday, November 23, 2019, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Once again, the Seacoast Division will be manning a table and we could use some help from our members. If you will be in the area and would like to donate an hour or two of your time, please contact me at .
As you can see, there are a lot of activities this Fall, in our area. I strongly encourage all of you to take advantage of the opportunities presented and be a part of them. There is a lot to see and the possibilities to learn more about our great hobby are abundant. So good luck with your modeling efforts this Fall and I hope to see many of you at one of these events.
Best regards,
Tage Erickson, Seacoast Division President